


Ex Vacui

by Daudful (Trotzkopf)



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Assassin AU, Dishonored AU, Friends to Lovers, From Childhood to Adulthood, Karnaca (Dishonored), M/M, slow-burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-03-30 03:42:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19034071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trotzkopf/pseuds/Daudful
Summary: Sometimes paths diverge and in the Void the Outsider sees them all.But what if…What if on a whim the black-eyed god decides to intervene at a different intersection in space and time, just to see how the story might unfold in another way?This is one of those tales.





	Ex Vacui

**Prelude**

Sometimes paths diverge and in the Void the Outsider sees them all. Love, hate and hunger for power churn the tides of fate, sending everyone adrift while the black-eyed god watches and occasionally touches the lives of those he deems _interesting_.

In one reality a young guard from Karnaca travels across the sea to Dunwall, the capital of the empire, and against all odds becomes the Royal Protector of a young empress who in time will die at the hands of a void-touched assassin.

But what if…

What if on a whim the black-eyed god decides to intervene at a different intersection in space and time, just to see how the story might unfold in another way?

This is one of those tales.

*~*

**Chapter 1 - Lost**

Corvo is hunched in the corner of the cellar. The light streaming in through the broken floorboards above him is fading fast and with it the heat that covered Karnaca like a blanket during the day, leaving him shivering and aching. His ankle throbs in time with his heartbeat.

“Stupid, stupid,” Corvo mutters, banging his head against the stone wall.

“This is all your fault, Bee!” He growls. “If you hadn’t left, this would’ve never happened.”

Beatrici wouldn’t have listened to old wives’ tales about hidden treasures squirrelled away by a long-dead sea captain who had made a living taking explorers to Pandyssia. She would have snorted, thumbed her nose and suggested they go pick pockets of rich, dumb tourists who had just arrived on the tall ship from Gristol.

But his sister had left without so much as a word, only a note on her pillow that made their mother cry for hours like she had two years before when they had lost father in a lumber accident.

Money was always tight, but between mother doing other people’s laundry, and Corvo and his sister doing “odd jobs” that mother never asked too many questions about, they had managed. But then, Beatrici just left. One less mouth to feed her note had said. What it didn’t say was, it also meant one less pair of hands to bring in coin.

“You stupid—“ The curse dies on his lips as another wave of nausea hits him. His shirt, patchwork and scraps of fabric mended so often it looks like a mummers costume, is clinging to him where cold sweat has drenched it, sticking to his skin and making him shiver again. When he tries to shift, pain shoots all the way up to his hip, and Corvo nearly bites through his lip. His ankle is broken, not just twisted. He knows because after the worm-worn floorboards had given away, he had foolishly tried to get up again. There had been a ladder which turned out to be just as reliable as the floor. Corvo had made it halfway up before he had crashed again and this time the snapping sound had been more than just splintering wood.

“Mom is going to cry again,” Corvo mutters, his lip trembling when he realizes that no-one will come for him. No-one knows where he is and it might be days if not weeks before they find his body. By then, the blood flies will have had a feast. They’re particular bad this year, and maybe it’s just his imagination but Corvo swears he can hear the buzzing of a swarm close by, just waiting for him to expire.

“Outsider, please—“

“Hey—“

Corvo’s eyes snap open. “Hey! Hey, I’m down here!”

“Yeah, I see that, dumbass.”

“Oi, who’re you calling a dumbass, asshole?” Indignation temporarily overruling his common sense which should have told him that insulting your would-be rescuer is not a smart thing to do.

“Uhm, the dumbass who walked into old Romano’s shop without backup,” the voice from above sneers.

“I— _ahhh_!” Corvo’s retort is cut short. The pain so intense this time, dark spots dance in front of his eyes.

“Shit, you hurt?”

“Yeah, my ankle,” Corvo admits through gritted teeth.

“Just my luck,” the voice mutters, and then louder replies, “A’right, hang tight. I’ll get you out.”

Corvo doesn’t reply, just breathes heavily through his nose, eyes squeezed shut again. He hears the sound of something hitting the floor close by, followed by cussing. His head is fuzzy and he must have blacked out because the next things he knows is hands shaking his shoulders and the rude voice shouting, “Hey, hey, you dead?”

Corvo’s ears are ringing. He grunts at the roughness of the touch, his head lolling forward. He tries to bat at the other one, but his hands just flop uselessly at his side.

“Wake up, dumbass!”

“Mh? Stop. Hurts.”

“Outsider’s eyes,” the voice growls. The hands shift, pull and suddenly Corvo is upright. His eyes fly open and the pain is so intense, he can’t even scream, his mouth just opening in a silent O. He slumps against the other one, his face burying in the crock of someone’s neck, who quickly adjusts his grip, one arm around Corvo’s waist, the other slinging Corvo’s arm over his shoulders, taking almost all of his weight.

“Now quit fainting like a spoiled nob, Tiny. We gotta get you out of here.”

“Tiny?” Corvo frowns, lifting his face and squinting at his saviour. In the semi-darkness of the cellar he can make out an angular jaw. Smooth and soft. Not even a hint of stubble on that already impressive chin.

“Oi, you’re just a kid yourself,” Corvo says.

The other boy looks down his nose at Corvo and snorts. “If I’m a kid, you’re just a baby. You’re what? Seven, maybe?”

Corvo growls despite the pain. “I’m nine, asshole.”

“Yeah, sure, pull the other one.”

“Fuck you, you fucker!” Corvo knows he’s small for his age, but it’s hardly his fault when there’s never enough food to go around.

To his surprise the taller boy just laughs. “You got guts, I give you that, Tiny.”

“Quit calling me that, asshole!”

“Your insults need work. Now, you reckon we can get outta here, or what?”

Corvo growls in the back of his throat. Rescuer or not, he doesn’t like this guy one bit. Corvo doesn’t know the word condescending yet, but he sure as the Void feels that this is the attitude he’s getting from the other one.

“So, what’s it gonna be, Tiny?”

“Corvo. My name is Corvo.”

“Tell someone who cares, now let’s go.”

Without waiting for another response, the taller boy half carries Corvo with him until they’re standing under the hole. It happens so fast, Corvo’s brain has barely time to register the pain shooting up his leg with each step before they’re staring up at the jagged pieces of broken floorboards, now barely visible in the fading light.

He doesn’t want to, but Corvo’s hands tighten in the other boy’s shirt as he’s fighting through the pain, clinging to his rescuer who for once doesn’t taunt but waits until Corvo’s grip lessons a little.

“A’right, Tiny, close your eyes!“

“What? Why?”

“Just do it.”

“Why?”

“Do it!”

“But how are we—?”

There’s a sensation like stepping off a cliff in a dream. It’s completely silent and somehow soft like treacle, and when reality comes rushing back, they’re out of the cellar just in time to catch the last glimpses of the setting sun through the broken blinds of the old shop’s front window.

Corvo blinks at the light and then slowly shifts his gaze to gape at his rescuer.

“You’re voi—”

The taller boy lets Corvo go with a shove. Reflexively, Corvo tries to catch himself only to cry out in pain even before his ass smacks into the ground.

“I repaid my debt, now get lost,” his rescuer hisses.

“Debt? What debt?”

“None of your business! Now do yourself a favour and never mention this to anyone, you got it?”

Corvo nods. He has no particular desire to recall how he snuck into an abandoned shop to search for mystical treasure by himself where he would have died if it hadn’t been for a void-touched boy coming to his rescue. Who would believe him anyway? Or if they did, he would be carried off like old Shaggy Ricci when the Overseers heard him talking about that talisman from Pandyssia. They never saw him again.

When the other boy makes to leave, Corvo calls, “Wait!”

“Look, kid—”

“I…I can’t move. My ankle, I think it’s broken.”

The stranger stares at him long enough to have Corvo worried. He’s going to be left alone again if he doesn’t do something and fast.

There’s just enough light left for Corvo to use it, his most powerful weapon of last resort. He doesn’t want to, not for this, not with this asshole, but he has no other course of action left. Swallowing his pride, Corvo’s face morphs into a picture of pity and vulnerability, his mother and sister call it — the puppy dog face. And given his success rate, it’s absolutely irresistible.

“Please help me, you’re my only hope.”

It’s working. Corvo knows it the second the other boy’s mouth drops open. Despite the pain and desperation, Corvo has to bite back a smirk. Puppy dog face strikes again.

“Ugh, fine,” the larger boy groans as he stalks over to where Corvo is sitting. “But we’re even after this.”

“Okay,” Corvo replies with lowered eyes and a big, fat grin on his face the other cannot see from this angle.

“I’ll take you to that new place. Edge of the Dust District. It’s just for miner families but—”

“No!” Corvo pulls at the boy’s shirt. “No, you can’t, I have no money. We’re starving as is and my mom does laundry for next to nothing. We—”

“Outsider’s eyes! Listen, dumbass, that ankle needs to be set or it’ll heal poorly, and then don’t expect me to come and haul your crippled ass around.”

Corvo worries his lip. The other…uhm… “Hey, what’s your name?”

The silence stretches so long, Corvo almost fears he might have spoiled his efforts. But then he hears the boy say, “Daud.”

“Daud? As in, I doubt that’s true?”

“No, dumbass! D-a-u-d.”

When Corvo just stares at him, Daud says, “You can’t read, can you?”

“Cause I can, Bee taught me.”

Just not all that much, and then she was gone. No more lessons, and there isn’t enough money to pay the schoolmaster for a proper education like Bee had when father was still alive. Corvo’s eyes sting when he remembers his sister sitting on his bed with him, the primary reader open between them and Bee making him trace the letter with his fingers while saying the sound it’s supposed to make. Corvo wipes his nose with his sleeve, trying to stifle the sob he can’t quite hold back.

Daud huffs. “By the Void, you’re— Whatever, let’s go.”

“Please—”

“Oh, quiet you. I know someone else, but you’ll owe me, got that?”

*~*

Their progress is slow and painful and Corvo is ready to pass out again when they finally get to the door with the moss-green paint job in a back alley in one of Karnaca’s less savoury districts.

“Couldn’t we have just… _poof_?” Corvo asks through gritted teeth.

“No, I told you not to talk about that. _Ever_. Now, shut up,” Daud snarls before he raps his knuckles against the wood in a pattern. Knock-knock pause knock-knock pause knock-knock-knock pause knock. Daud’s hands are bandaged, wrapped tight all the way up to his elbows like the ones of the boxers down at the docks.

A panel set high in the door opens and even Daud has to rise on tip-toes to be visible to the person on the other side.

“Waddaya want?” A raspy voice demands to know.

“Morley pear soda,” Daud replies.

“Morley don’t grow no pears, kid.”

“Cause they do. Tyvia is colder than a witch’s tit all year round.”

The panel slides shut, followed by the sound of a latch before the door swings open. The scent of burned meat, old sweat and antiseptic hits Corvo so hard, he’s lucky there’s nothing left in his stomach. He gasps and dry heaves as Daud drags him inside; the stench is getting stronger with each step.

“Friend of yours?” The raspy voice asks as they squeeze past the bouncer.

“Yes. Sofia here?”

“In the lab, you know the way.”

They shuffle down a dark, narrow hallway toward a cone of light at the very end. It would be spooky and exciting what with the secret knocks and passwords if not for the agonizing pain that makes Corvo wonder whether he’s going to lose the foot. The thought makes his heart pound faster and his hands tighten again in the fabric of Daud’s shirt.

“I told you to quit clinging so hard,” Daud snarls.

Like he did the first fifteen times when Daud told him off, Corvo ignores him and asks, “Where are we?”

“Fiddler’s Green, they call it.”

“I thought that was like paradise for dead sailors?”

Daud chuckles. Corvo can feel it more than hear it. “Something like that.”

“So, we’re friends now?” And there’s a hint of amusement and maybe hope in Corvo’s voice.

Daud snorts. “No, dumbass, but I’m not going to tell the guard dog that I’m bringing the lil brother of a…a… an _associate_ into their headquarter, am I now?”

“Ass-what? Brother? Bee, you mean Bee?”

“Shut up and stop pulling, you little shit!”

“No! You know my sister? Do you know where she is?” Corvo is struggling against Daud’s hold, trying to shake the information out of him

“Stop pulling my shirt, you’re ripping the seams, dumbass!”

“Where’s my sister?” Corvo yells.

“I don’t know!” Daud shouts back, shoving Corvo into the wall. “I don’t know,” he repeats more quietly as Corvo slides to the floor all the while glaring daggers at Daud.

When Corvo sniffs, Daud groans, “Ah, come on, don’t go crying on me again.”

“I’m not,” his voice barely trembling as he hides his face behind his arm.

“Yeah, right.” There’s a sigh and Daud says, “Look, Tiny, I don’t know about Bee. She left us, same as you.”

“Who’s us?”

“No-one. The point is, she’s gone and I don’t see her coming back. That’s the truth, so you’d better get used to it.”

“Who’s us?”

Daud sighs and mumbles, “Now I know what she meant by tenacious as a blood fly after a stiff.”

“How do you know my sister? She never said anything about you.”

There’s a pause before Daud says, “Ever heard of the Whalers?”

“Sure, bestest gang in the Dust District. Although Alfonso said they are gone now.”

Daud snorts. “Yeah well, she ran with us.”

Corvo’s eyes are the size of saucers as he listens. “How…how come she never told me? She took me picking pockets and tricking morons out of their coin all the time.“

Daud clicks his tongue. “Picking pockets is one thing, but burglary, fencing loot at the black markets, beating up assholes who try to encroach on our territory. Totally different level.”

Corvo sticks his chin out. “I can fight. Bee taught me.”

The sound is so unexpected, Corvo flinches when Daud laughs. It’s loud and contagious, Corvo feels the corner’s of his mouth twitch although he’s got the sneaking suspicion Daud is laughing at him.

“Nah, Tiny. Sure, she was training you. But you had a long way to go to run with the Whalers. We’ve all been doing this since we knew how to walk and she only started teaching you after your dad went to the Void.”

“But why didn’t she tell me? I could have—”

“You deaf on top of being a tiny dumbass?”

“Oi—“

“I just told you, you weren’t ready. And she knew you would have come after her no matter what. Stubborn and reckless, she said. And out there, that’s a sure fire way to get you killed.”

Corvo jerks his head around and glares into the gloom. “I’m not stubborn,” he mumbles which sets Daud off again.

“Stop laughing at me, you asshole!” Corvo yells, but it only makes the taller boy laugh harder.

When Corvo tries to kick him, the pain flares and he yelps in surprise and frustration.

“See, stubborn and reckless.”

“Fuck off!” Corvo grits out between clenched teeth.

Daud sighs. “Face it, Tiny, she kept you alive. Be grateful, you had more than most.”

“I miss her,” Corvo blurts out. His eyes sting, his foot throbs and his heart hurts something awful.

“People leave, hard fact of life. Don’t get attached, is my advice.”

“You’re mean.”

“But I’m not wrong. Come on, let’s get this over with,” Daud grunts as he pulls Corvo back onto his feet and more or less carries him to the end of the hallway.

Before they step into the light, Daud stops and asks, “You good?”

Corvo nods, sniffing, but his voice is steady when he replies, “Yeah.”

They enter a surprisingly well lid room. The far side wall is one giant shelf with books and jars filled with barely visible shapes that send shivers down Corvo’s spine. Sideboards on the other side are full of beakers and bubbling concoctions. An examination table is the centre piece and next to it stands a tall, grey-haired woman with sharp, pale eyes. She acknowledges their presence with a raised eyebrow while spreading a white cloth over the table.

“Daud.”

“Doc.”

“Hi, I’m Corvo,” Corvo says into the following silence, making the other two people in the room shift their attention to him — one of them more irritated than the other.

The doc, presumably Sofia, even smiles at him. “Hi, Corvo. What happened to you, then?”

“I fell.”

“Uh-hn. And did you have help with that,” she looks at Daud, her eyes hardening just a fraction, “or—“

“No, I just fell. I was lucky Daud found me.” Corvo replies with a smile that quickly fades when he sees the expression on Daud’s face.

It’s the first time he can clearly make out the older boy’s features. They’re stern, intimidating even. He has a high forehead and Corvo bets it’s the last thing a lot of street thugs see before he bashes it into their fat noses. Speaking of noses, Daud’s own looks like it has been broken many times over. Maybe boxer wasn’t too far off the mark, but surely Daud is too young for that. Corvo guesses Daud isn’t older than fourteen, maybe younger given that his voice isn’t squeaky yet. His eyebrows are angled and closely drawn together, making it look like he’s permanently scowling at the world, but that’s just his face. Just as his mouth is downturned at the corners as if he’s always angry. Or maybe he is. Maybe that’s why he’s so scowl-y and sullen looking.

Daud’s eyebrows knit even closer together when he catches Corvo staring.

“What?” He snaps. “What’re you looking at?”

“Your ugly mug,” Corvo replies, feeling save enough to dare a bit of cheek.

“You little—“

“Come sit here,” the doc interjects. Daud’s nose wrinkles in anger, but he obediently drags Corvo over to the table and helps him sit on the clean sheet. He scowls at Corvo one last time before he retreats to the door to lean against the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest.

“No, please don’t!” Corvo yelps when the doc touches his shoe.

“It’s got to come off. I can pull it, or I can cut it. You got another pair?”

The doc knows he doesn’t. Shoes are expensive and given the state of the rest of his clothes, it’s not difficult to conclude that if he loses these, he will have to wrap his feet in cloth, if he can even find that. The shoes he’s wearing used to be Beatrici’s. The soles only stay on because of the string tied around them.

Corvo shakes his head and lowers his face. “Pull them off,” he whispers.

“Daud,” the doc calls. “I need you to hold him down.”

“There’s just no end with you, is there?” Daud groans, throwing his hands in the air.

*~*

The next half an hour is a blur in Corvo’s memory because he thankfully blacked out when the shoe came off.

“That was a blessing in disguise,” Sofia tells him when he wakes up. Corvo looks down at his foot, it’s set in a metal contraption, gleaming and expensive looking.

“I…uhm…how much…”

The doc holds up a hand. “It’s fine — this time. Daud settled your bill.”

“Oh,” is all Corvo manages to say. His eyes immediately searching the room.

“He’s gone.”

Corvo’s attention snaps back to Sofia. “Where did he go? Is he coming back?”

There’s something like pity in her eyes when she replies, “No, kid. Don’t count on it. He said to tell you not to go looking for him, but that you owe him now.”

“I…I know that. But—“

“He also said that you can repay your debt by forgetting you ever met him.”

But he knows about Bee is what Corvo wants to say but doesn’t. The doc doesn’t need to know this and given the look she is giving him, Corvo knows he’s already overstayed his welcome by a few minutes. She pushes a pair of crutches into his hands as he slides off the table. His shoe is tied around his neck. His first steps are awkward, but he manages to get to the door without making a fool of himself.

Just before he leaves, Sofia calls, “Leave the cast on for six weeks and stay off that foot as much as possible, but don’t just lie around either. Move as much as you can.”

Corvo nods.

“And, Corvo, I don’t know how you know Daud, but do yourself a favour and leave him be. He’s trouble, that one. And, it goes without saying, but just in case, don’t tell a soul about this place. Understood?”

“Yes, doc. I promise. Thank you.”

By the time he’s made it back to the entrance, he can move with confidence. He’s not fast, but he doesn’t feel completely helpless either. The bouncer grunts before slamming the door shut, almost knocking Corvo into the dirt.

It’s dark and a cool breeze carries the scent of brine. Corvo sucks it in greedily and almost retches when he catches a whiff of himself. His mother is going to kill him. He looks down at his foot. Shiny, expensive looking metal twinkles in the moonlight. Yep, he’s dead. Especially when he cannot explain any of it to her later after he makes it home. Thankfully, he stepped out of Fiddlers’ Green at that magical hour in Karnaca when it’s too early for the thieves and thugs, but too late for the regular folks going about their business. The streets are mostly deserted, people are either already where they need to be or are just getting ready to go out.

Which means Corvo makes it home in one piece where his mother opens the door to their apartment, mouth ready to shout, but that’s where the words die and she gasps instead.

The shouting happens later when he refuses to tell her anything because he promised he wouldn’t and he’s too busy downing the thin gruel she’s made for supper. When Corvo falls into his bed after a bath — awkward as it was with his foot in the metal cast — his last thoughts before he drifts off are circling around a void-touched boy and where he might start looking for him.

 


End file.
